To have your cake and eat it: Planning for a future EHR and meeting todays needs Jonah Aburrow-Jones, Senior Vice President The HCI Group 3 rd March 2015.

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Presentation on theme: "To have your cake and eat it: Planning for a future EHR and meeting todays needs Jonah Aburrow-Jones, Senior Vice President The HCI Group 3 rd March 2015."— Presentation transcript:

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To have your cake and eat it: Planning for a future EHR and meeting todays needs Jonah Aburrow-Jones, Senior Vice President The HCI Group 3 rd March 2015 eHealth Week

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Starting in land far, far away Since 2009, the HITECH Act and Meaningful Use (Stage 1 and Stage 2) accelerated the implementation and adoption of EHRs in the USA. Phased journey to get healthcare more automated. Focus on using EHRs in a meaningful way, then with interoperability and data analytics truly use them to change the protocols of care. Rush to get automated has led to “What do I do with it now?” – Significant costs in optimisation – Longer time to realise benefits – Now trying to move from Meaningful Use to Meaningful Care – Delivering care isn’t just about an EHR 2

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EHRs: The Benefits Focus should be on the patient Most EHR business cases use non-patient care justifications – Efficiency, productivity, communication, transparency and accountability 4

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The Future of EHRs in the NHS Integrated EHRs are here and more coming In England, it is estimated that >40 Acute Trusts will start to procure and implement new EHRs in next 24 months – The Paperless agenda – Integrated Care – Have to address a culture of workarounds and working in spite or despite IT systems – Current systems are unsustainable Limited NHS generated evidence to support success of EHRs It takes at least two years to procure and implement an integrated EHR What happens to continuing to improve patient care during that period?

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Why a Transformation Project? By its nature, an EHR project isn’t an IT project. It is an organisational, change project on a large scale. Realising benefits has to start in pre-implementation of an EHR and doesn’t stop – in continues and system evolves. The ROI on a large integrated EHR can be >8 years. Benefits realisation, and therefore ROI, isn’t the job of IT departments – it is the clinical and business users Clinical ownership and accountability is critical Workflow redesign should be planned at the start point, not when the system goes live 7

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Advantage of EHR & Transformation Without alignment, one can become a limitation to the other Reduces start-stop Potential for sharing of budgets and resources Creates a mindset that change isn’t a bad thing Fosters “the art of the possible” 8 Transformation Program IT Project Level of Benefit Technology Enabled Transformation Program

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The 3 rd Element: People There will be very significant change management related to this transformation. Change impacts employees jobs and how they do their jobs Three people related factors that can define or constrain an EHR project: – Speed of adoption (how quickly employees make the change), – Ultimate utilisation (how many of them in total make the change) and – Proficiency (how effective they are when they have made the change). If managed ineffectively, employees are slower to make the change, fewer of them make the change and they are less effective once they have made the change. The vast majority of staff will be affected by integrated EHR. 10

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So what’s the problem? Trusts have to continue to improve care and cut costs in the 2 year gap between starting an EHR procurement and go live Every Trust has a list of tactical IT projects as well as keeping the lights on Every Trust has objectives setting out targets for care improvement (beyond statutory ones) Limited experience with large scale transformation and change projects Resources – financially and staff are limited Care for patients moves between providers 11

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Closing the Gap Develop clinical ownership and engagement at the earliest opportunity. Failure to do this will raise risk of failure. Evaluate and improve process but keep aligned with the long term goals. Baseline current state and identify the aspired future state Identify pain points Plan for short, medium and long term benefits realisation Invest in being ready – Governance – Research – Engage with vendors early 12

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Closing the Gap Analyse best use of current systems in terms of interim and likely EHR functionality. Consider interim solutions. Be ruthless in killing projects which do not align with the longer term goals. Do not overstretch with too many tactical projects eating into resources needed for a strategic level one such as an EHR. Have structured and ongoing communication with all stakeholders – internal and external. Don’t believe that you can do it all yourselves.

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Summary Having a EHR as part of a transformation project has significant benefits. EHR pre-implementation planning can identify and prioritise solutions of pain points in the gap period. Utilise the mix of people, process and technology to help drive improvements. Don’t become distracted, stay aligned with goals and objectives. It is possible, with the right preparation and approach, to have your cake and eat it.